Edward Little’s Catherine Comeau wins the girls’ slalom title.
By Peter Mullen
Staff Writer

LOCKE MILLS – Some things never get old.

Mt. Blue is once again the top dog in alpine skiing as the Cougars swept both the boys’ and girls’ downhill competition as the Class A skiing state championships continued at Mt. Abram Wednesday.

On the boys’ side of the ledger, Telstar was distant second and Oxford Hills third. Edward Little and Leavitt were fourth and fifth respectively.

In girls’ competition, it was the Vikings taking the runner-up spot just three points ahead of Edward Little.

Oxford Hills coach Mike Grace could not have been more pleased with his girls performance.

“I honestly didn’t think we would do this well,”said the coach. “EL definitely skied better than us all season but my girls just pulled it together today. They skied unbelievable. We got a little break when one of the EL girls fell down but that happens. In slalom especially.”

Overall, as the meet heads into its final day today with just the 5K Classical cross-country race to be run, EL holds a 2-point lead over Mt. Blue with Oxford Hills just five points behind in third.

There is no mystery as to who the overall boys’ champion will be, the Cougars have a huge lead over Oxford Hills. The Vikings have a comfortable lead over third place Telstar.

In the girls’ slalom, it was Edward Little’s Catherine Comeau posting the best time. Her times of 36.47 and 35.67 easily outdistanced second place finisher Lexie Drechsel of Mt. Blue. Comeau had a combined time 3.84 seconds ahead of Drechsel.

“The first run was really fun actually,” said Comeau. “They were two good solid runs and I’m pretty happy with them.”

Comeau likes the slalom better than Tuesday’s giant slalom event and the results prove it. The sophomore was eighth in the GS.

With the exception of Telstar’s Justine Carver in ninth place and Lake Region’s Brittany Powell in eighth, three schools dominated the top 10 positions.

Following Comeau and Drechsel was the Cougar’s Tory Gray. Mt. Blue also collected sixth when Keelin Cyr totalled 1:19.13.

Edward Little’s Kelly Constantine was fourth.

Caitlin Staunder and Samantha Brown finished in fifth and seventh place for Oxford Hills.

Brown had a little excitement in her first run.

“The person in front of me fell,” said Brown. “I had to get out of the course and take a rerun. It scared me.”

Despite the distraction, Brown posted the eighth best time of the run at 41.40.

“I think I would have done better on my original run,” said Brown.

In the boys’ slalom, Mt. Blue’s Jordan Stevens posted the fastest time of the day in his second run (33.33 seconds) to edge Telstar’s Jake Largess by a narrow margin.

Largess had posted the fastest time the first turn down the course.

The Cougars placed three in the top ten with Buzzy Cyr following in fourth place and Nick Gray in seventh.

Erich Ouellette led the Oxford Hills scoring parade with third place finish, his combined time just a quarter of a second behind the winner.

Like Beal of Lake Region was fifth.

Edward Little’s Tyler Dorris, winner of the GS on Tuesday fell in his first run. While he posted a respectable time of 35.67 in his second attempt, his overall combined time knocked him out of contention.

The time, the fifth fastest, still didn’t impress the skier.

“I kind of took a straight line and hit a patch of ice,” said Dorris, explaining his poor time in the first slalom run of the day. “I was trying to get back into my rhythm and I just fell.

Dorris scrambled back up to the slope to the missed gate, thinking about how to avoid the problem again.

“I needed to just try to get my line back and maybe go a little bit tighter,” said Dorris.

With a slim lead and one event left, the slalom winner Comeau knows the team is prepared.

“We’ve been working hard,” said Comeau. “Last year we were right behind Leavitt at States and this year we won overall at the KVAC’s. We’ve been working really hard for that. There is a of training. We obviously work on going through the course and everything but a lot of its mental.”

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